A Drop of Summer
by REBELS AGAINST GOD
Summary: A bridge, two strangers, and three words. "I wasn't trying to… jump, if that's what you thought." She was like the start of summer, seven years ago when everything was still wondrous and beautiful and new. [MikuxLuka; AU]
1. 001 : of june and cherry blossoms

**ᴀ ᴅʀᴏᴘ ᴏғ sᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ  
** [ _REBELS AGAINST GOD_ ]

—001 : of june and cherry blossoms—

* * *

Saturday.

Summer's end.

A bridge, two strangers, and three words.

* * *

"Take a look around the city. I'm sure you'll come to love it."

Hatsune Miku remembered her older brother's exact words, the cheeriness once again ringing dully like a broken bell in the back of her mind as she wandered amidst the hot afternoon air and bustling atmosphere.

Mikuo had offered to come with her when the younger girl hesitated, thinking she was intimidated by the new people and unfamiliar places.

"I'm sixteen. I think I can handle a little walk by myself," Miku had countered back with a roll of her eyes, leaving her brother standing still at the doorway while she hurried out like someone who was lost but wouldn't admit it, trying to get away from who-knows-what, trying to get to who-knows-where.

Two weeks before school started. Everything was too bright and dreary. A road was paved directly in front of Miku's house, greeting the teen with noises of vexed honks and the subdued, hasty roars of cars as they sped past. Strangers that blurred by like the extras in a movie, grey and not defined clearly, only flashing in the scene once, maybe twice.

 _I'm sure they're in a hurry to important places that are waiting for them._

And as she walked, not as much a sightseeing trip since she stared at her feet the whole time, her mind not even on what was around her, the more she just hated it all. The busy city sounds, the rush of people and traffic, how the summer sun was blinding as it reflected off white surfaces. An unsatisfying crack in the pavement or the fact that everyone smiled too much and cared too little, or the garbage that was littered off to the edge of the sidewalk—crushed aluminum cans and almost-empty plastic bottles and crumpled papers no one will get to read anymore—looking as if they'd get swept into the incoming cars and churned away any moment.

In the first ten minutes of strolling around, Miku could positively say she hated everything about this place.

 _It wasn't my choice to transfer and leave my only friend._

A quick hug goodbye. No, not goodbye, a "see you later". Miku and Rin had promised each other they would meet up whenever they could, despite living in different cities now. They weren't too far from one another. They could arrange something in their free time. She acknowledged the empty agreements for a café date, a walk around, a movie sometime.

 _It wasn't my choice I was born with terrible parents who left me._

She was barely aware as she subconsciously followed people she didn't know over crosswalks and intersections, to the steel bridge that loomed over a large river, connecting the two cities on either side of the body of water.

She wasn't supposed to go this far. She wasn't about to return home anytime soon.

 _It wasn't my choice to be in the mental state that I'm in._

The water below was a dark, murky green-blue, littered with wavering specks of silver and white that reflected the sunlight in the distance. A small motorboat dashed past on the surface, sending seabirds flying and ripples disturbing the previous peace.

Miku walked along the slim sidewalk on the edge of the wide bridge where the pedestrians were allowed, leaving the road for vehicles that raced by with little regard for anything but their own space, sending a gust of wind as they went.

Irritably, the teal-haired girl tucked a strand of hair that kept bothering her behind her ear.

"I just want you to be happy," her brother would say.

 _Nothing was ever my choice._

Miku halted in the middle of the bridge and turned over to the side, letting others behind her walk ahead as she propped her elbows up on the railing and stared down at the river, fiddling with the teal-and-white bracelet on her left wrist, sweeping her gaze to the buildings and trees and coast aligned below like a picturesque city photo.

"I'm going to be living here for the next few years," Miku whispered to herself, the breeze tugging at her turquoise strands as they began to fall loose again. "I'm going to have to get used to this place, like it or hate it."

A sudden wind carried her words away and dissolved them, like seagull cries in the sweltering heat or sugar in a bitter cup of coffee or her parents' last words to her.

She felt for her phone in her pocket, and as she slipped it out, opening it to Rin's newest message, she adjusted the brightness to match the glowing vividness of everything else around that rendered the phone screen unbearably dark and unreadable.

 **how're you doing? liking your new place? i miss you a lot~ xx**

Miku started typing: **No, I hate it** , before deleting it midsentence and settling with a lighter text instead.

 **It's okay. Not as nice as my old home but something about new jobs and opportunities forced me to come here.**

She added: **I miss you too :)** , before sending.

Hanging her arms over the edge of the railing, she slid the bracelet off her left wrist and caressed the strung gems gently.

 _Dad… do you still remember me?_

Suddenly, somebody bumped into Miku from behind. A muffled, half-hearted "sorry" and shoes shuffling away. But the impact sent the surprised turquoise-haired girl's bracelet flying out of her loosened grip.

Without thinking, Miku immediately flung herself over the bridge railing and reached desperately for the item, other hand latching onto her phone.

 _Wait._

Her heart raced like the cars that hurtled past behind her carelessly. The metal bars pressed into her stomach as she hooked her trembling legs onto the railing while the upper half of her body dangled off.

Her teal eyes widened. She lost her foothold and grip.

 _Oh no._

A gasp. Someone yelling in the distance. An arm twisted around Miku's torso and abruptly yanked her back. The pigtailed girl stumbled onto her feet and eventually crumpled down, breaths coming short and heavy.

"My, are you alright?"

Shock. The stranger's outstretched hand.

Breathless. Miku turned to look up.

A young woman who couldn't have been much older than Miku stood over her, the shadow of her long strawberry pink hair staining the concrete.

"Please don't try anything like that, you're still very young and—"

Miku saw the ocean in her eyes.

"I wasn't trying to… jump, if that's what you thought," the younger girl finally managed, feeling around for her bracelet and letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she realized it was still there. She stood up shakily with the stranger's help, flushing at the scene she must've caused. A few people who stopped to stare continued on with their lives soon after. "T-Thank you… um…"

"Oh, I'm Megurine Luka."

She was like the start of summer, seven years ago when everything was still wondrous and beautiful and new, all at full brightness.

Her smile reminded Miku of June and cherry blossoms.

The younger girl slid her phone into her back pocket, a **still there?** text from Rin left unanswered. She smiled back, a splash of rose lighting her cheeks.

"Hatsune Miku."


	2. 002 : plastic stars

**ᴀ ᴅʀᴏᴘ ᴏғ sᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ  
** [ _REBELS AGAINST GOD_ ]

—002 : plastic stars—

* * *

The car rumbled mutely as it passed by houses and trees that blurred away without a sound, a cold metal body enveloping two figures, each to their own separate thoughts.

Mikuo had one hand on the wheel, the car speeding down a mostly straight, quiet street. He cast a glance at his younger sister through the rear-view mirror. She laid her forehead against the side window, teal eyes lethargically scanning the scenes that flashed by outside like a sad movie.

The silence was normal by now. Mikuo hesitated in saying something just to break it. He was just about to open his mouth.

"You know…" Miku started, doing Mikuo's job for him. "You don't have to drive me there every week."

The turquoise-haired boy kept his eyes on the road but forced a small, bitter smile, though he knew Miku couldn't see.

"I want you to go for your own good. You know that, don't you?"

"If you really wanted what's best for me, you'd listen to what I tell you." Miku's half-hearted gaze never left the car window. "I could at least go by myself."

"After you almost fell off a bridge the other day? I don't think so," Mikuo scoffed, although the care was obvious underneath the layer of sternness. His little sister tsked under her breath.

The trees and lonely streetlights around them thinned out to houses and buildings, buried far from the main city. Quiet, undisturbed, tranquil.

"I don't get why I have to go to this support group if it's not helping me." Miku turned away from the window and her voice rose a bit. "Maybe I don't want to talk about it. Maybe I just want to be left alone. Have you ever thought of that?"

"Miku, it hurts to see you like that. I don't want to see it get worse, not after I almost lost you…" The car slowed down, leaving behind the road dashes that they were so familiar with. So did Mikuo's words. He turned around in his seat. "These people want to help you. I want to help you. You don't understand now but—"

The grey-blue vehicle skidded to a halt in front of a beige-and-white building, old but likely repainted several times. Miku forcefully opened the car door and slid out.

"Have you ever considered _my_ feelings? Have you ever thought that perhaps I don't want to share my secrets with people I don't even care about, that I don't want to do this anymore?" the turquoise-haired girl stared intensely at her brother through the front window. He had his head down, but she knew he heard her. And he knew by "this", Miku didn't simply mean going to the support group.

Mikuo let out a heavy sigh as he rested his arms on the steering wheel. He watched dejectedly as Miku walked through the front doors of the building and he remained there—frozen and conflicted—a bit after that. The back car door that Miku never shut lingered with him.

* * *

"How was it?"

Miku gave up on holding her phone as she simply dropped it beside her cheek where her voice could reach. She splayed her limbs, stretching out like some kind of spring flower, except not bright or blooming, face-up on her bed.

"The usual. Mikuo made me go. I lied when they asked me about my story, I always do," Miku mumbled. "After all, everyone understands and praises a hero who's been through tragedy and hardship. Who would care about another moody, depressed teen?"

The light blue sheets ruffled as she turned, like an ocean rippling beneath her body. Sometimes she laid on her right side, sometimes on her left, trying to be comfortable in her disoriented train of thought. A calendar hung on the wall, slightly crooked, but Miku was no perfectionist. It read "August" in bold black letters, but she knew it was already September 2nd now.

 _I remember my old house. The plastic glow-in-the-dark stickers shaped like stars and planets. Me and Rin used to stand on the bed and pretend—_

Miku suddenly heard a distant voice in the phone, all staticky and unclear. Rin countered back with a groan and "Shut up already, I told you it's mine!" and the turquoise-haired girl guessed that voice was Len's.

"Sorry about that, he's being an idiot," Rin growled irritatedly, the muffled noises that Miku couldn't quite make out as audible speech still in the background, like a television turned on to some random channel just for noise, not to watch. "Anyway, I'm sorry about that, Miku. I wish I could help. Maybe we can meet up soon and talk more and help get our minds off things?"

"School starts this Monday for me so I might be busy the whole week," Miku explained. "But I would love to when we're both free." Her half-lidded gaze drifted to the ceiling, age staining the once flawless white.

"Really? I don't have school for two more weeks!" the blond-haired girl exclaimed on the other end, the much more enthusiastic of the two, so much that Miku wished she could calm down a bit. "How about this Saturday? I'm busy on Sunday but we can work something out on the weekend."

Miku nodded, and then realized Rin couldn't see. She settled with a simple, "Saturday sounds good."

"Coolio, I've gotta go now," Rin chimed in her usual cheery, upbeat fashion. "Love you! See you then!"

She hung up before Miku had a chance to respond. If she was even going to. All that was left was Miku wondering if Rin had made new friends already, and the soft, continuous beeping noise from her cell phone that hung still and monotone in the quietness of her room.

* * *

That day at 9:47 PM, Miku had already climbed into her bed, hid under her covers from the monsters that she didn't know weren't coming tonight. Not sleepy in the least but she would rather be here than awake, pretending those glowing stars were still there, sticking on her ceiling and walls.

At 11:02 PM, she slipped out of her now-warm covers and locked her door, somehow expecting Mikuo to knock and check on her like he did in the past, every time he was concerned. An hour passed and nothing happened, not even a lone shadow or a murmur outside her door.

At 2:18 AM, she was half-asleep, her teal-and-white bracelet neatly placed on her wooden bedside table, rendered translucent under the dabs of moonshine.

It was nearly forty minutes later when she slipped into a mineshaft of content unconsciousness, dreaming about the ocean and someone with petals of May in her rosy hair, oblivious to a rosette two miles away struggling to stay awake with a dark coffee and dim desk lamp, thinking about a turquoise-haired girl with shades of August in her eyes.


	3. 003 : coffee stain collisions

**ᴀ ᴅʀᴏᴘ ᴏғ sᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ  
** [ _REBELS AGAINST GOD_ ]

—003 : coffee stain collisions—

* * *

When Miku woke up, it was already too late.

The black digital clock had flashed 7:00 AM in bright red, illuminating the dim, curtain-shielded room. The alarm rang through the silent stillness of the atmosphere. A head peeked out of the blue covers, long turquoise hair tousled and rumpled from sleep. Groaning and trying to ignore the sounds of Mikuo's muffled footsteps downstairs, she slammed a hand on the clock—two times before succeeding and shutting the beeping noise off—and mumbled "just five more minutes" before closing her eyes and burying her nose back into her covers.

"Just five more minutes" quickly turned into twenty minutes…

A knock sounded at Miku's door. She didn't hear.

Half an hour…

Another knock. Still no response.

An hour…

A sudden chilliness washed over Miku and ice seeped into her bones.

"Miku, wake up!"

The younger girl sprang up, teal eyes wide and heart racing at the sudden shriek, hands feeling around for the bedcovers that her brother had flung off of her.

Mikuo loomed above her, his shadow cast over her bed as he stared down at the turquoise-haired girl. She clutched her blankets, wrapping them tightly around her body as she wore an exasperated yet oblivious expression.

"What are you doing here?" he exclaimed, standing beside her bed in a dark grey suit, matching pants, and blue tie. "You're supposed to be at school by now!"

"But it's only—"

Whatever drowsy words Miku was going to say immediately got caught in her throat and faded until they were forgotten as she caught the time in her peripheral vision. The digital clock shone 8:26 AM.

"Only 8:26?" Mikuo declared sternly, arms crossed over his chest. "Classes start at 8:30, if you haven't forgotten. Do you really want to be late on your first day here?"

Cursing quietly under her breath—which Mikuo somehow caught and scolded her for—Miku ripped a white shirt out of her closet and dug through her clothes drawer until she found a dark blue skirt and quickly slipped it on, her older brother stepping out of the room and saying something about having three minutes left.

 _I have three minutes?!_ The 16-year-old growled frustratedly as she fixed her clothes and raced downstairs, forgetting breakfast entirely. _I'll never make it!_

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Miku flung the front door open, until she suddenly halted and eyed her brother, who joined her.

"Why are you in a suit?" she asked flatly, furrowing her brows.

"Nothing, just a job interview," Mikuo answered, slipping a shoe on, flashing a comforting smile at her which she didn't return. "If you want a ride—"

"No, it's fine," the tealette mumbled, and raced out after that, an unanswered "Be careful!" from her brother lingering in the air as she sped down the street, almost crashing straight into a car but swerving at the last second, hearing Mikuo mutter something about her.

 _One minute left_ , she realized as she checked the watch on her left wrist, the bracelet she loved so much hanging right beside it, just like always.

Car horns blared and vehicles skidded to halts as Miku bolted through the middle of the road. Even the grey rainclouds made way for her overhead.

* * *

 _8:38. Damn it!_

The school hallways were hushed and vacant. Students were all at class by now, she figured. The stillness was a contrast to Miku's pounding heartbeat after she ran a mile down streets and sidewalks and intersections and still showing up late.

Unfolding the now crumpled and misshapen piece of paper, the new student tried to make sense of the school map and directions to her homeroom printed on it in faded black ink, crooked white streaks snaking through the words where the crease marks were.

Her rushed footsteps seemed to echo down the corridors and white walls and multicolored lockers, with no one in sight except a janitor who disappeared behind a door into a small room.

 _Who made these directions so hard to read?_ Miku thought annoyedly as she shoved the paper into her bag, mind simply set on destroying it until it was no longer readable, speeding through the hallways of Vocaloid High, hastily sweeping her gaze over the plastic signs beside the doors until she spotted her homeroom up ahead.

 _About time! I'm already eleven minutes la—_

"Oof!"

Miku suddenly collided with something. Something soft. Or rather, someone.

She hurriedly gathered the other girl's textbooks off the floor that she had knocked down. She kept her head low and gaze on the polished grey floor as she returned the books back to the student, panting heavily by this point.

"I'm so sorry!" Miku exclaimed with a quick bow and proceeded to go, her long pigtails flowing after her as she dashed off without another word. A pair of aqua blue eyes flashed under pink bangs as they lingered behind the shorter girl.

"Wait!"

But by then, Miku was already out of earshot.

* * *

A middle-aged man paced at the front of the classroom, hands locked securely behind his back, a few flecks of white staining his black hair. His voice was drowned out by the excited chitter-chattering of the students as boys and girls leaned over their desks and turned their chairs to talk to their friends.

"Everyone, settle down!" his voice boomed, hushing the teenagers for a moment. "I'm sure the first day is exciting but I expect some behavior and manners from you. You guys are in, what, 11th grade now? You aren't children anymore, so I demand—"

The classroom door flung open and a skinny figure flew straight into the tall man. The impact sent both of them stumbling apart from each other, with the teacher's coffee spilling onto his shirt, and Miku had to steady herself with a hand on the nearest desk.

 _Second time in one day! Just my luck._ Miku groaned inwardly, feeling her cheeks grow hot under the intense stares of nearly all the students.

"Sir, I'm so very sorry about that, I… I'll buy you another if you want," she rambled, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone, shrinking in her own bubble. _Just let me become invisible, just let me die._

She could hear the suppressed laughter and snickers and whispering of students to one another—"What a freak."

He let out a heavy sigh, clearly frustrated, as he dabbed a bit too forcefully at his chest with a handful of tissues, muttering something inaudible but certainly not good as the color refused to come off.

"No, that's fine, forget it, uh…" The man cast a split-second glance at a list of names sitting on his front desk, noticing the only one missing. "Hatsune Miku, is it?"

"Yes, that's me." The pigtailed girl dipped her head, finding the ground very interesting all of a sudden as the stares—and glares—of everyone around her bore into her very bones. The hushed conversations and giggles either didn't stop, or the echoes were already etched into the walls.

"Well, Miku, disregarding this _mishap_ ," he spoke sternly with a glance at his expensive wristwatch, almost like he was emphasizing that last word, "I'd like to inform you that you are twelve minutes and twenty-four seconds late, and on the first day too. Don't let this happen again."

"Yes, sir," Miku responded meekly, shuffling down the rows of desks to an unoccupied one towards the back of the room as the teacher silenced the other students.

She plopped her stuff down and sighed, sitting with her face in her arms, just wanting this day to be over. But the round clock on the wall disobeyed her wishes as its hands pointed to 8:43, indicating six more hours left.

"Nice one, that was hilarious," a boy's hushed voice sounded right beside her with a laugh as the teacher started talking, some meaningless blabbering in the distance. The teal-haired girl was about to shoot the blue-haired student on her right a rude look and scowl before looking up and noticing the genuine, friendly grin on his face.

"T-Thanks," Miku mumbled with uncertainty, casting a small smile back. She turned her attention to the front of the classroom, but not before a distinctive dinging noise started sounding repeatedly, causing heads to turn and faint laughter to ensue.

The teacher narrowed his eyes, his back still turned to the class as he wrote something in chalk on the board.

"Whoever's cell phone that is, I'll advise you to turn it off now and keep it off before I come over there myself and take it away."

Miku swallowed nervously and reached down into her bag as subtly as possible to turn off her phone.


End file.
